the tough call

Concrete Love

Henri J. M. Nouwen

I find it difficult to conceive of a more concrete way to love than by praying for one's enemies. It makes you conscious of the hard fact that, in God's eyes, you're no more and no less worthy of being loved than any other person, and it creates an awareness of profound solidarity with all other human beings.... And you'll be delighted to discover that you can no longer remain angry with people for whom you've really and truly prayed.

Source: Letters to Marc About Jesus

These are the things that seem so tough for us to do. How do we love in the moment or even after the "moment"?

We "I" can place myself in a self righteous bubble and forget about my commitment to God and His kids. He loved me when I couldn't find the strength, energy or reason to do so myself.

As I spoke about in the blog about the C& E'ers, we must learn to love everyone all the time. It is not to say that you won't get upset or even a bit worse. Our initial energy needs to be spent on loving them.

As Henri says, Love can be just praying for someone. I know that there are several people that I feel quite angry with. Do I want to be anywhere near them right now - NO!- Am I called to love them - YES! - 

How can I do this if I can't get near them? I can lift them up in prayer. To pray that God might show us how to calm the current storm in our lives. Sometimes I have to pray just to trust enough to leave the situation alone. To be able to walk away from those things that are annoying me.

In my current situation I have prayed for the heart of Christ to be present, He has. I have been close to the persons that have wronged me and God's grace fell upon my lips. I spoke respectfully to these people. I gave them the love of Christ. I did not give them what I felt they deserved. That is only possible through prayer. Trust me I am no saint, it was clearly God intervening in my life at those moments.

Today, can we pray for someone that we "hate" or dislike. Maybe someone who has wronged you in the past. Can we at least take care of our side of the street, by not holding grudges and stop holding on to those things that tear us up inside. You cannot make someone else respond to you in a way that you feel worthy of, you can however control what and how you respond to them and others.

If we do this thing right, we might just get out of here alive.

interesting conversation with a friend

      So, yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine. We were talking about a motorcycle. This conversation then went into a talk about God and church and the whole "religious thing". I am always trying to help people understand that it is religion that is killing Christ's church today, and has been for 2 thousand years or at least 1700 years.
Do to a recent adventure in "church" I have a bit of a foul taste in my mouth as does my friend. My taste will go away and to be honest I find it quite inspiring. For my friend however, not so much. He was "burned" by the hypocrisy of the church at a young age. He was confirmed and all that jazz but he then left the church. He would see people that felt they were doing "there piece" by going to church on sunday. This would lead those people to feel as though they have done there part. They are done for the week, "let's get back to the way life is suppose to be". The feeling that if they just do church on sunday morning they would be done with their obligations to Christ, or they have again"paid their insurance policy".

All to often we hear of people who have been burned or upset by the church. What can we do to help them? Do we want to help them? Is it our mission to help them?

If you think about it, they have been taught what Christ stood and died for - right?
Are these people the ones that are throwing the baby out with the bath water?

Many times the church does not act like the bride of Christ. We behave no different than those that do not know the love of Christ.

We do need to be change, we need to reach our hands out to those who have been taught falsely. We must continue to teach forgiveness and compassion in all circumstances.

Talking with my friend about the differences between religion and a follower of Christ. I love these conversations. For the first time since I gave my life to Christ I feel as though My friend actually listened to me. He has not sworn his life to Christ, but he is listening.

We talked about how people are to love one another and how we are to forgive one another. We talked about how the issues in the church are not a lot different than those outside the church. We talked about
how so many people are doing this thing wrong, not that I am doing it right, but I am trying.

We talked about how those things that have happened to me might not be right but, I must forgive and press on. We talked about Paul and how things did not exactly go right for him. We talked about why I would bother going to school to learn how to do this thing called church when I could just pay $59.00 and be ordained that way. We talked about how important it is to some people to see the ordination papers above the pastors head.

All this to say - We had conversation about the things that were both right and wrong with the church. We talked - He spoke I listened - I spoke he listened! We had edifying conversation. For the first time in a long time the person that he was talking to was not talking to him not from a pedestal, but rather up to his level. He felt as though someone was listening rather than judging and telling.

Don't get me wrong, it is not easy to listen to some of the arguments that he had - they were good and well thought out. They were wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. He knows why he does not like church, I could not argue as they are valid but still wrong things about the church. I am quite thankful for this conversation and to have a friend that will in fact tell it like he sees it.

If I love Christ, I have to listen to these and many others. These are the arguments from the streets. These are the discussions that have to happen. Jesus listened and talked WITH the woman at the well. He was not condescending or snide. He knew who she was and what she was and still He spoke to her. He is the example that CAN be followed.

We as followers of Christ must learn to be more like Christ. Let's not just be Jesus for two weeks after a mountain top experience. Those experiences that are so transformative - let's rise up from our religious bog and enjoy the beautiful valleys. Can we take time to smell the valley flowers and look high to the majestic mountain tops, remembering that it is almost impossible to live at the tip of a mountain. Let's remember that Jesus came down to us. Even Christ came down to be with us. Let's try to remember where we were assigned to be - In the Big Valleys below the majestic mountain tops. It is gorgeous here.

Maybe, just maybe if we get this part right, we can get out of this thing alive!

The cost, cast from the Cross

The woman at the well teaches us more than what is obvious. Jesus was out of place. He would not have been at that well if He were to be a “good jew”. He went to show us how to be great children of God.

If you believe that this is God’s world, then you must believe that it is God’s world. The entire world falls under the salvation of the cross. Jesus died for all of us, not just those that are saved. He died for those that did not know His Father as well, or maybe did not know God yet.

I learned this while reading a devotion from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 

This devotion was about intercessory prayer. It went just like this - “Offering intercessory prayer means nothing more other than Christians bringing one another into the presence of God, seeing each other under the cross of Jesus as poor human beings and sinners in need of grace. Then, everything about other people that repels me falls away. Then I see them in all their need, hardship, and distress. Their need and their sin become so heavy and oppressive to me that I feel as if they were my own, and I can do nothing else but bid: Lord, you yourself, you alone, deal with them according to your firmness and your goodness”.

If we think of the sun shining down on the earth. Think about who is affected by that sun throughout the course of a day. Now put the cross in between the earth and the sun. Who then is affected by the shadow of the cross.

The cross that our Lord and Savior died upon affects each and every person on this planet, equally. So with that being said, it is easy to see that God does not love any one of us more than the other. He loves us equally. In fact His Son on the night in which He was betrayed made this last request. He requested that we love our neighbor as ourselves. He said in other books or version of the same story, which means the same thing. He said Love your neighbor as I have loved the church. John 13:34 We are the church.

So when we see others not acting according to the way that WE feel they should, should we judge and ridicule them? Should we love them where they are at? What is it that we should do? Should we sit by the well and wait for the town whorelett to come and serve us water? Should we waste our time as others have done for us, teaching the word of God, to those that it seems hopeless to teach? Should we lift them up in intercessory prayer?

God will work with everyone for their part in this ultimate drama. This thing that we call life. God will if your willing to listen, give you your assignment. You need only be willing to listen for it, trust in what you hear and feel. Enjoy your time in the shade, get rested, get out and do God’s work. Your under the same light as the rest of this creation.

Give yourself and others the opportunity to get out of this thing alive!

Relational life

So, how do we be " relational"? How do we live "relationally"?

I mean really, let's face the truth, some times people really suck! Sometimes I wouldn't give a penny to help some people out. Now I know that sounds pretty harsh, but what is the difference if I say it or live it?

If I don't live my life with the love of Christ and live out the Great Commandment, what's the point? Why would I bother to go to church and profess my love for Christ? This question has haunted me forever, or at least as long as I have lived my life for Christ, What is the point?

I have been blessed with an opportunity to do ministry full time. While I was doing ministry, I found myself being the one getting ministered too. I accepted the position with great excitement. I thought that I would get to read the bible all the time and pray for people, man oh man, I was made for this job! Well let me tell you that could not be farther from the truth for me. I found myself trapped in this world of temptation. The temptation to idolize my work and my efforts more that I loved God. I quickly found myself working 80+ hours a week and never really reading or praying. I never found myself meditating on the word of God.

I was trying to finish up one ministry program while also trying to do a few other ministry programs. My life had become so full of doing God's work, that I forgot one major piece. I forgot God! I forgot to honor Him above and beyond all things and people. I put my goals and what God had called me to above worshipping God. I had skipped the beginning, I had become a hypocrite!

 It was Christmas eve 2010 about 11:45 p.m. Church was finished and everyone had gone home. I had finished all that I needed to do for the night and was talking to a friend. We were talking about all the people that had come through the doors of the church that day and night. How these people think that they are saved and the fact that they are so far from the truth. Then we discussed the errors of their ways and a few other things, such as - do they think they are saved? Do they really feel any better for "wasting" an hour of their lives? The "Chreaster" phenomenon is well known throughout the faith communities(those that only worship on Christmas and Easter)\, and one that will never be looked at the same, at least by me.

Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. If I truly feel this way about some of these people, am I doing the will of God? The answer is NO! I am not loving anyone of these people the way that I am suppose to!

If someone comes into this building and wants to worship God with myself and the rest of the congregation, shouldn't we let them? Or, is it right that they may feel the bad taste that I have on my lips, or feel my self righteous judgement on them? Can they feel that I don't really love them the way that I love myself? Do they feel welcome in "the House of the Lord". Do they feel loved by God in the place that we call "the house of God". I think it is Casting Crowns that talks about this in one of their songs - They sing about the judgmental glances reaching farther that they know. I know this stuff and yet here I go, judging everyone that I don't know.

Shame on me I thought. But, God in His mercy showed up immediately. As soon as I began to bash myself so harshly. He reminded me of the truth. He reminded me that He still loves me and that He always will. He reminded me that this is a journey and that He already knows that I will make mistakes. He reminded me that He loves me without judgement. He reminded me that a father still loves His child, even when they fall. It is the Love of Christ that shows us what we must do and how we must do it.

Let me start by saying - I AM SORRY! Lord I repent of those behaviors and vow to do my best to walk as your Son did. Loving those you place in front of me, even those that are a little off to the side of me.

This blog is some of what has come out of Christmas 2010. Working out the truth with His grace, mercy and wisdom. Fumbling through this thing called life. Trying harder than anything ever in the past to love when and where it counts. EVERYWHERE AND EVERYONE. These are the chosen people of God. Whomever He sets in front of us.

1 Corinthians 13:1- 3 - "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing"

This confirms my suspicions : We are to Love first!

If we keep the first thing first, won't the rest just come along with it?

It is my thought that I need to always remember these few things. Jesus summed it up into two sentences.
John 13:34 -" I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another".

Then He said and this will help us all get the word of God to many nations: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13: 35

If I can keep the first thing the first thing and continue to learn and grow, I might just get out of this thing alive.

The beginning

The Big valley is a look at the Journey between mountain tops. So often in a Christians life, we talk about all of the "mountain top" experiences. Life gets pretty exciting there, we have just come out of a conference or a weekend retreat. We get what others call a "Jesus High". We talk about how nothing will ever take this away. " I am going to change my life forever".

Not a bad thing necessarily, but it is not where we live life. Life happens for most of us in the Big Valley. Life between the mountain top experiences. Life gets back to "normal".

People get back to normal or is it that we get back to normal. We have returned home from the highest of highs. We are back to the old grind and doing things as normal, "our way". Our realization that we can't do everything by ourselves returns, which leads to anxiety, which leads to mood swings and worse.

We get back to life where God happens on Sunday morning or maybe one or two other times during our week. We stop loving without expectations and disappointments. Everything is as it was before our grand trip up the mountain.  We remember what it means to be "us" without God.

Life without God is life without breathing clean air. It is never realizing what this world has to offer. To go for the slam dunk and hit the rim every time "DENIED"!

Life between the Mountain tops or Life in the Valleys does not have to be the way that we make it out to be. Life in the Big Valleys can actually be the great experience. It can be as high as any Mountain top experience. Life in the Valleys can be as exciting as any other time in our lives.

We need to help one another out of the Big Ruts in those Big Valleys. We must, if there is any hope of getting out of this thing alive, we must learn to help one another! To help our brothers and sisters the way that Christ meant for us to help each other. The way that God planned this great big thing to go.

We must learn to Love when loving is the last thing that we want to do. We must learn to RISE ABOVE THE CIRCUMSTANCES. We must learn to be as Graham Cooke says "Spiritual Warriors". Graham Cooke - Qualities of a Spiritual Warrior  "Warriors do not react to their circumstances, they respond to God". This is a life that relies heavily on us living the life that Christ calls us to. It is displayed in the book of Acts. This book is a great look at how we can help each other, how we can live together.

Acts 2:42-44 "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common".


This life, is life in the Big Valley. All they had was their faith in God and each other. They lived with the Holy Spirit always.


So, this blog will be my journey together with my brothers and sisters. Trying our hardest to live that life.


"All Honor and Glory to God"